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Opinion Contributor

Washington’s evolving think tanks

The Heritage Foundation has in placed in charge a senior politician. | Jay Westcott/POLITICO

POLITICO reports that DeMint said on CNN that “he’d be stronger and more influential as Heritage Foundation president than as a lawmaker.” As an example of such influence, during 2011 Heritage staff conducted 3,508 radio interviews and 1,339 television interviews on public policy matters, probably far more than staff at any academic institution in America.

As for wealth, DeMint’s predecessor at Heritage earned $1,098,612 per year, more than five times DeMint’s Senate salary and more than all but two public university presidents in the U.S. DeMint’s new salary at Heritage has not been publicly disclosed.

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The degree of taxpayer support for think tank compensation is also striking. Since think tanks are funded via tax deductible charitable donations, DeMint’s compensation will continue to be largely paid for, albeit indirectly, by taxpayers. Given the large step up from his former $174,000 salary as a member of the Senate, he may now cost U.S. taxpayers more as a think tank president than a U.S. Senator.

Such public funding should make think tanks a legitimate object of public policy discussion. If think tanks continue to act more like lobbying firms, perhaps they should be regulated more like lobbying firms. Conversely, if think thanks claim to uphold academic norms, perhaps they should be held accountable for those claims.

Regardless of any public policy reforms that might be advisable, think tanks’ abandonment of academic norms should spur a public discussion about the appropriate ethical obligations of think tanks, including disclosure of their funding sources, scholarly attribution standards, lobbying activities, treatment of whistle blowers and revolving door relationships with government bodies. As illustrated by DeMint’s move to Heritage, think tanks receive too much taxpayer subsidy and exert too much political influence to retain their current level of immunity from public scrutiny.

J.H. Snider is the president of iSolon.org and a fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.